burning other people's music

dr.placebo · Post by **dr.placebo** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 9:41 pm

In 1999 and 2000 there seemed to be a lot more variety of music, especially more acoustic music. The complaint back then was the ubiquitous drum circles, although to be fair the sound did not carry far. From my experience the amplified techno seemed to ramp up in volume around 2003 and peaked in 2007 or 2008. This year was slightly quieter, possibly aided by the recession, or maybe I'm just losing my hearing.

I like variety. I love to hear a brass band in Center Camp (actually heard this year) and some funk and some reggae and soul, and the entire "Bless its Pointed Little Head" by the Airplane (also heard this year) and weird shit on the radio. Having a single kind of music, even one that I often like, dominate simply because they bring bigger speaker systems is lame. Its especially lame when we get half a dozen party barges playing who's got the biggest phallic sound system.

And I cannot imagine any kind of enforcement that would work that I would be able to tolerate. Having sound nazis running around would be far worse than the current problem.

BTW, the canceling sound waves idea only works in very restricted circumstances. One way is with headphones, and another is to colocate the emitter and the canceler, and there are most likely others. But none that are practical on the playa, as far as I know.

curiousgnate · Post by **curiousgnate** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 10:56 pm

ok so. I was at the raver outpost in 97, and I had a great time. at that point I was all about the rave, and didn't even realize what burningman was. I only was there from thurs-sun. Obviously things have evolved from that point. Now thumpa thumpa is everywhere. My advice is to bring earplugs, and accept the fact that this TAZ has thumpa thumpa in it everywhere. get over it! If you have an art project that has to do with quiet, or quieter sounds put it out in the deep playa. If you feel like your personal audiozone is being raped by the thumpa thumpa then move. If peeps are playing their thumpa thumpa loud and no one is anywhere near their system then ask them to turn it down... when that doesn't work, bust out a db monitor, and find a ranger... when that doesn't happen consider going on a adventure to the deep playa or the temple to get a little piece of mind... when that doesn't happen grab a drum and go to center camp and let it out through the drum. if that still hasn't helped... go back to camp and manybe the thumpa thumpa has diminished... If it hasn't put in earplugs and go to sleep cause you just had a fun night on the playa..... thumpa thumpa sucks sometimes, and sometimes it rocks. i must admit if there was loud rap crap all week long 24/7 i would have moved after one night! I usually camp in the red light district where I go to sleep where three different conflicting thumpa thumpas are competing in my brain every time i try and go to sleep, but I manage and I don't even use earplugs. All I know is that Carl Cox and Christopher Lawrence rocked my world this year and they played some damn good thumpa thumpa. So did Pink Mammoth. HOUSE. my camp played funka dn non thumpa thumpa all week and it was a refreshing alternative!

the fire elf · Post by **the fire elf** » Mon Sep 14, 2009 11:09 pm

the logistics of it would seem daunting

you would need sensors on a perimeter to lead the wave, increasing your footprint
and exposing technics of potential value to maurading pirates

then there's a system competent and suave enough to recognize possible multi-targets sending in oblique waveforms in motion and/or stationary
while being able to triangulate and send out "<" shaped waves to catch "<" shaped ones (subjectively)

or you could run off for a stint in the himallyahs to up your conciousness, so that you manifested only your favorite tunes come near you when you burn

but even then you run the risk of trully loving the thumpa thumpa...
mooting your initial motivation

it's a pickle

then again... some love pickles

some even like being tied up and whipped

who am i to judge?

seamonkey · Post by **seamonkey** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 7:10 am

thanx for the sense of history, placebo. that is the first step - for thump junkies to realize the BM world has not always revolved around them, so they don't have entitlement.
love your pic too. goodbye head! ! !

Artemis · Post by **Artemis** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 8:02 am

Today's Jack Rabbit Speaks had a section to email suggestions, but said to ack quickly. If you're still serious about making suggestions about sound camps staying on outer edges of city or whatever, now's your chance.

seamonkey · Post by **seamonkey** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 8:05 am

yeah! i did write in there! thanks, artemis.

pandasex · Post by **pandasex** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 9:57 am

Ugly Dougly wrote:Pandasex, you obviously don't go that far back in BM history. There was a time when there was no techno on the playa, with the exception of a very remote Rave Camp. Things have changed; the sun and wind are eternal.

Your right im only 2 years into BM. But i cant imagine the playa minus techno. If it has evolved to this much techno i think the people have already spoken

Kenny Z · Post by **Kenny Z** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 3:29 pm

Yeah, got a lot of compliments for the music I played this year and last on the Red, White, and Blue Light Special. Played things like the Clash, Dandy Worhals, Sublime, The Guess Who, and some funny stuff like SNL Shorts: On A Boat and Jizzed In My Pants. At night, I moved to stuff with more beat but all the songs had words! Things like Lords Of Acid, Front 242, Sisters Of Mercy, The Crystal Method, etc.

Yeah, Trance has its place and I have to admit, I like to hear it sometimes. That said, when everybody plays it, it can drive a man insane!

rodiponer · Post by **rodiponer** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 4:59 pm

This was my first year.

The music was not as bad as I expected. We were in Kidsville, 5:30 & D, next to Hushville. It was generally very quiet-- I could hear the greeters bell at night. A few mornings, just around sunrise, someone on the Esplanade turned their volume up to about 70 decibels from our camp-- loud enough to wake us up, but still easy to ignore. It must have been extremely loud for the people closer to the Esplanade.

The loudest music I heard all week was when an art car drove into Kidsville to play a pornographic song with explicit lyrics about "Daddy sticking his penis into Mommys vagina" that dragged on and on about sperm and giving birth in graphic detail. We were all feeling so mellow and such love for everyone around us that, at least with the parents I was hanging out with, we felt kind of sad for the folks in the art car being so.... I don't know how to say this right-- so caught up in their own bullshit? I mean, grown men with a cool art car using it to pick on little kids? It felt both sad and retarded, like a youtube video of stupid drunk frat boys writing on each other with sharpies.

On the playa, the distant electronic music added to the surreal feeling. Like I was in the future. I enjoyed it, I think it added to the experience of walking around in the foggy dust.

seamonkey · Post by **seamonkey** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 5:03 pm

"...If it has evolved to this much techno i think the people have already spoken..."

but can those people who are speaking also listen?

i wonder which art car was the red,white,blue light special? sounds fun...

about insanity, maybe i am insane enough to have a great time without having to have my sanity beaten out of me with quite such incessant bass decibles.

seamonkey · Post by **seamonkey** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 8:02 pm

seamonkey · Post by **seamonkey** » Tue Sep 15, 2009 8:02 pm

jeez. that sure came out wrong. sounds, in good old text, like i am trying to say i am insanier than thou. haha!
mirror mirror on the wall who is the burningmaniest of them all?
LOL

i will shut up now. :)

Kenny Z · Post by **Kenny Z** » Wed Sep 16, 2009 11:47 am

seamonkey wrote:".

i wonder which art car was the red,white,blue light special? sounds fun...

Pretty wimpy looking art car in comparison to many of the other awesome vehicles but it was built entirely from scratch (no existing frame) and it was only two of us who built it. I guess we stand out to some though because we don't play what every other one is playing. Plus we try to cater to a larger demographic. Like the other years it has been there, it was fun and we met so many people because of it!

duffdog · Post by **duffdog** » Wed Sep 16, 2009 12:37 pm

seamonkey wrote:maybe you could invent a system to assess and compute to send out cancelling waveforms

that would be cool...think i can get a BM grant to develop it?

Its pretty easy to make a system that sends out inverse LF waves to cancel LF noise. There are several in place at airports around the U.S.

I find it far more entertaining to drown out the offending music with massive amounts of power and give the offenders a taste of what its like to hear music that you do not like. In fact, we installed a 70kw sound system on the pisces bus (yes, we actually got it all on!) and was sort of upset that there was only about a 60 song playlist that every DJ on burningman was playing from. Seriously. It seems as though everybody and their brother goes onto beatport and downloads whatever is the top 50 songs...regardless of whether they are good songs or not. Then, they all simultaneously play those songs at burningman.

I couldn't help myself at the rocketship launch and had to start playing random 80's music extremely loudly when we drove to our destination. The highlight of my experience was playing Diesels "sausalito summer nights" on the 70kw system as we drove around. In that moment, I took a breath of fresh dust and thought: "Finally! something different to listen to!!!"

seamonkey · Post by **seamonkey** » Wed Sep 16, 2009 1:28 pm

u r crackin' me up duffdog. it is like my idea of installing huge ass camps at 2 & 10 and blasting SHOWTUNES nonstop for the whole week. heh heh. there might be a few people amused......

Turnip · Post by **Turnip** » Wed Sep 16, 2009 1:58 pm

I camped on 4:30 and J.
I didn't hear anything.
But saw a couple Tumble weeds...

mayavin · Post by **mayavin** » Sat Sep 19, 2009 11:32 am

[youtube][/youtube]

burning other people's music

too much techno beat?